Nearly all workers in Australia believe their companies will witness an increase in investments into Artificial Intelligence over the next two years. Their biggest bet? AI use in project management, a new study says.

Researchers from software reviewer GetApp surveyed more than 500 employees to find out how confident they are about the benefits of artificial intelligence. Of those asked, 98% think AI use will help give their employers a boost in their investment in only a couple of years.

Workers are also relying more on the technology, with one in every three (33%) survey respondents saying that their employers increased AI spending by 11% to 30%.

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Interestingly, a majority (76%) of employees claimed that their companies already experienced a positive return on investment (ROI) since they have started using artificial intelligence in project management.

"Pioneering companies that are currently incorporating AI software into their project management processes are reaping the rewards despite concerns about the maturity of the technology,” GetApp Content Analyst Andrew Blair said.

“In particular, companies that have adopted AI software in the past two years are already citing a positive return on investment, and the benefits of the technology may already be giving these companies an edge over their competitors.”

For businesses to start incorporating AI into their business processes, Blair said employers need to come up with a well-rounded, thought-out strategy.

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Popularity of AI use in the workplace

The GetApp study examined the use of AI technology in different aspects of business processing.

Nearly one in three (29%) workers said their companies already use artificial intelligence in managing projects. This is noticeably higher compared to the number of respondents who said their employers are in the process of adopting AI (23%) and those that are interested in incorporating the technology (21%).

When asked whether they are satisfied with AI, a majority (89%) of respondents said they are happy to use the technology. More than half (58%) of the workers said AI use gave them more time to focus on higher-value tasks, while nearly half (49%) said it allowed them to interpret data much faster and more efficiently.

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Of those interested in incorporating AI, 34% of respondents believe it would allow them to interpret data quickly and more effectively. Meanwhile, 26% are optimistic that the technology would give them more time to work on their higher-value tasks. Using AI for project management

More than half (58%) of respondents said they use AI-powered task management software for managing projects. Nearly half (49%) pointed to the program’s task automation capabilities as their reason for using it. Indeed, 27% of workers believed their companies have benefitted from automation since it allowed them to focus more on complex tasks rather than the repetitive and tedious ones.

Despite the growing popularity of artificial intelligence use in project management, nearly one in three (31%) workers admitted they have yet to do so due to a lack of clear adoption strategy. On the other hand, 22% of respondents said they are willing to adopt AI technology first before creating a clear integration plan.

Some 26% of workers have also expressed concern about incorporating AI because of their perceived immaturity of the technology.